Facebook To Open Engineering Office In NYC

 

Facebook is holding a special event this afternoon at its office in New York City. The event is a little strange, in that Facebook only sent invites out this morning — which may be because it will feature U.S. Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY) and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The event will also include Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and VP of Engineering Mike Schroepfer.

Facebook hasn’t given any indication as to what to expect, but I’m guessing it has something to do with expanding its presence in New York, particularly around engineering, given Schroepfer’s attendance. Its current NYC office has a handful of engineers, but is dominated by employees on the sales side. I’ll be updating this post as the event unfolds. You can also watch the event right here

Update:: the press release just went out, but event hasn’t started yet. From the release:

From the release:

To keep up with its rapid growth, Facebook today announced plans to establish an engineering presence in New York City and tap into the remarkable technical talent that the region has to offer. The Facebook NYC engineering office, the company’s first outside the West Coast, will open in early 2012 and will begin accepting applications immediately.
“More than 800 million people around the world rely on Facebook, and more than half of them visit every day. Operating at such a large scale, and innovating as quickly as we do, we need to recruit the most talented engineers in the world,” said Mike Schroepfer, Facebook’s Vice President of Engineering. “New York has a strong history of innovation and is home to thousands of talented technical people, and we want them to help us solve the challenges of designing and building the next generation of Facebook,” he added.
“Building an engineering presence outside the West Coast is a big step for us, one we would take only if we found the right combination of talent and community support,” said Sheryl Sandberg, Facebook’s Chief Operating Officer. “We’re particularly grateful for the encouragement and assistance of New York’s elected leaders, who understand what it takes to build a climate where technology can fuel economic growth and the creation of high skilled jobs,” she added.

 

Facebook To Open Engineering Office In NYC
Jason Kincaid
Fri, 02 Dec 2011 19:18:55 GMT